Las Gaviotas

About a 45-minute drive south of the border there is a sweet spot called Gaviotas, or Seagulls. 

Definitely, the greatest challenge for me is to catch birds in flight. I have to anticipate where they will be in about two seconds, shoot blindly, and hope they make it into the frame in time. More often than not, I don't gauge it correctly! I was lucky to get these three in the same frame. 

It's blurry, I admit, but pelicans are fast, and I am still learning. They like to travel in fours, so my goal is to get a good shot someday of four flying together. Each time they flew by, they caught me off guard. I was busy focusing on a palm tree or on a Mexican tile, and BAM! they would swish in from out of nowhere. I rarely had time to turn around, and they were small specks in the distance.

It was a gloomy day but still beautiful. Hard to believe we had a heat wave last week. It drizzled for a few minutes before this shot was taken. 

There are so many cute houses in this community. Beautiful tile roofs, great views, and friendly folks, a mix of retired gringos and Mexicans. 

Little sparrow on a red roof. It didn't stick around for long!

        

Cormorant contemplating the sea. . . .

Young Labrador retrievers. They must love being near the water. 

Sea kelp and stones. When the waves crash in and then roll out, you can hear a whooshing, sucking sound as the water gushes back into the sea. It is a pleasant sound. 

          

Mexican roof and tile. 

Believe it or not, two seagulls were very interested in my presence when I first walked out with the camera. They took turns flying right above my head, only two or three feet above me. Of course, I was never ready and missed a couple fantastic shots. Here is one of them, at a greater distance, flying by the trunk of a palm tree. 

This fishing trawler was unreeling a massive net to catch fish, much to the dismay of residents who protested it was trawling illegally, too close to shore. 

There were four or five cormorants milling about. Each time I walked closer, they walked farther out on their rocks towards the ocean. Luckily, the zoom camera allowed me to take good shots without getting any closer.

                                  More of Gaviotas. . .

                            

                 I heard the mission bell. . . Not really! This is the cute entrance to someone's house.